MS Excel Activities

Microsoft Excel is a spreadsheet program that is a part of Microsofts Office software package. Excel is commonly used in business and finance circles, and is a common program for various activates such as storing and manipulating data in tables, creating graphs and charts and performing calculations on data.

Organizing Data

Perhaps the most basic activity you can perform in Microsoft Excel is storing, organizing and manipulating data. Entering data is a simple and accessible activity even if you dont know how to use any of the more advanced functions of the program. You can select cells within a spreadsheet with the left mouse button and type text or numbers directly into any selected cell. You can also use the arrow and tab keys to move around the cells quickly. You can copy and paste large fields of data just like text in documents, making it easy move data around within a spreadsheet or between different workbooks. Create a basic data table with column headings in the first row and data values corresponding to each column as a basic activity to become more familiar with Excel.

Creating Charts

One of the most notable features of Excel is the ability to quickly produce charts and graphs to represent the data entered into a spreadsheet. Charts can be an effective way to visually conceptualize data and can be especially helpful when presenting information to others. Excel graphs are a common feature of slideshow presentations and Microsofts PowerPoint program allows Excel graphs to be inserted as slides using copy and paste. A useful activity when learning Excel is to attempt to create a graph of a data table. To create a basic graph, drag a box around all of the cells containing the data that you want to include in the graph, click on the Insert tab click on one of the chart types under Charts. (Excel 2007) After producing a chart, the individual elements such as the placement of the axes and headings can be changed.

Performing Calculations

For more advanced users MS Excel can be a powerful tool for performing out calculations on data. When selecting a cell, pressing the = key will allow you to enter a formula and the result of the formula will be displayed in the cell. The variables in a formula can be the values of other cells, making it a great way to perform operating on data in other cells. To learn how to use the calculation function, try entering numbers in two different cells and then entering a simple formula in a third cell to perform a calculation on the data (for instance, try adding the two cells together). To reference another cell in a formula, simply left-click on the cell while you are entering a formula and press the enter key to finish entering the formula.

For example, type 50 into cell A1, and type 30 into cell A2. Now click cell A3 and press the equals sign, click cell A1, type "+", then click cell A2 and press "enter." The sum of the two cells will appear in cell A3.